The sport of golf is an increasingly popular sport. Much of the tension, and excitement, of any round of golf, surrounds the act of putting, which ordinarily determines the ultimate winner of any round of golf. As a result of its obvious importance to successfully playing the game of golf, the art, or skill, of putting has been the subject of large numbers of instruction manuals, books, magazine articles, and United States patents. A casual observation of professional and amateur golfers, in the acts of putting shows that putting style, including putter grip, player's stance, putter club style, ball position, can be different for each golfer.
In addition, it can be appreciated that physically, every golfer varies greatly in height, weight, and body structure, such that the distance and angle between the ground and the golfer's hands when putting can also vary greatly. Generally speaking, the act of putting does not require unusual strength, or extremely high velocity club swinging, as in the case of driving or iron play. Putting is, rather, an act of finesse and, hopefully, an act as free of physical stress and mental swing correction signals as possible.
Golf clubs available for purchase at most sports stores are readily available in varying degrees of shaft flex and club head shape. The length of the woods and irons of a set of golf clubs are usually approximately standard throughout the golf manufacturing industry, although such clubs may be special ordered with non-standard lengths. Most golfers, however, acquire a standard length set of clubs and modify their stance, grip, and other swing characteristics to optimize their swing action relative to those clubs.
The design of putters is typically viewed as a pursuit of an aesthetically pleasing club that promotes a golfer's confidence in his or her stroke. As such, many putters have been designed irrespective of the mechanics inherent in the putting swing. Furthermore, many putters lack a design that accounts for an individual golfer's characteristics and characteristic playing style (i.e., stance, grip, etc.).
In the case of putters, conventional practice is to provide putters having an overall length of generally about 35″, and a conventional lie angle between the shaft and the bottom surface of the putter of approximating 70 degrees. Rarely are putters shortened or lengthened, and typically, the beginner, or intermediate, golfer will adapt his putter swing to the length of the club rather than having a putter personally fitted to him, or her, without any reference to the standard length or lie.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a putter with an adjustable length and torque resistant golf shaft, which can easily adjust to various heights and has the appearance of a conventional shaft whose configuration is fixed.